More than half of clients underestimate their retirement expenses

Underestimating certain key factors in financial planning can leave retirees in difficult circumstances at a time that is supposed to be their golden years.

According to an AICPA survey, many people planning for retirement make the mistake of underestimating these factors. CPA financial planners responding to the AICPA CPA Personal Financial Planning Trends Survey for the third quarter of 2015 said that, on average, more than half of their retirement planning clients underestimated:

Their retirement expenses (57%),

Their and their spouse’s combined life expectancies (57%),

Their individual life expectancies (52%), and

The amount of money they need to be able to retire (54%).

Survey respondents most frequently named overspending as a key reason clients were forced to change their retirement plans (76% named it as one of the top five reasons), followed by health care costs (72%) and poor estimates of retirement spending and income (68%).

Clients were more likely to reduce spending before taking steps to increase their retirement income, planners said. The strategies the highest percentage of clients would use to reduce spending included reducing gifting (planners said 56% of clients would consider this option), reducing discretionary spending (54%), and reducing travel (52%).

The greatest percentage of clients would be willing to sell physical assets for cash as a way of increasing retirement income or cash flow, planners said. Thirty-five percent of clients would consider this strategy, while 37% would consider changing the allocation of their investments for additional income, even if doing so would increase the risk of running out of money earlier.

Planners also stated that almost three in 10 clients (29%) would refuse to change their spending habits unless they were forced to. About the same proportion (30%) would refuse to adjust their cash flow or income unless circumstances required it.

Forty percent of respondents chose a change in health status as the circumstance most likely to make clients receptive to changing their retirement plan. Thirty-two percent of respondents chose losing a job or income as the event most likely to persuade clients to alter their plans, while 14% chose having a conversation with an adviser. Read more on the Journal of Accountancy.